236 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Aug. 



LETTER FROM MB. BROWTf. 



V/anvick, B. L, June 16, 1863. 



Narraganset Bay — Population of Warwick — Its Soil and Vc!;eta- 

 ble GDwth— Black Walnuts — Grapes— Shrubs and Flowers — 

 Hauling the Seine — Sharks — Dog Fish — Menhaden Fish for 

 Manure — Manner of Using them — How Composted for Top- 

 dressing — North Kingston — The Chadsey Farm — Great Rye 

 Croji — Seeds — The Ive« Farm — Oaks and Locust — The Water- 

 man Farm — Fine Jersey Cattle and South Down Sheep— The 

 Farm of Thomas J. Hill — Reflections and Conclusions. 



Gentlemen : — As I suggested in my first let- 

 ter from"TAe i^arm," I have come forth to "learn 

 how other people live and prosper," and to col- 

 lect facts, if I can, that will be valuable to the nu- 

 merous readers of the New England Farmer. 

 Your paper is not a stranger, I find, wherever I go. 



Warwick, from whence I date, is a large town, 

 bounded on the east by Narraganset Bay, and 

 fiequently penetrated by numerous inlets from 

 that broad and beautiful sheet of water. In these, 

 a variety of fish and clams are procured, and some 

 of them, the Menliaden, for instance, in very large 

 quantities. At the head of one of these bays, 

 "Co-we-sef," near the little village of Apponaug, 

 and two miles from East Greenwich, I have made 

 my halting place with some excellent relatives, 

 and from whence I shall ramble as fancy or facts 

 invite me. 



The population of Wandck is now about 10,- 



000 souls, and is largely engaged in the manu- 

 facturing of various kinds of articles. One can 

 scarcely pass over a mile of any part of the town 

 without finding "a factory" of some kind. Where 

 water-power can be obtained it is employed, but 

 if the stream is not there, steam is, and the wheels 

 fly merrily everywhere. The soil is of a peculiar 

 character. It is a rich, sandy loam, sometimes 

 abounding with stones, but more fi'equently with- 

 out any, and having a dark and slightly reddish 

 appearance. The growth of wood includes the 

 Cedar, Walnut, White and Yellow Oak, Beech, 

 Maple, White and Red — I did not observe the 

 Rock or Sugar Maple — the Locust, Yellow Pine, 

 White and Brown Ash, Birch, and Black Walnut. 

 The laitter is indigenous, and splendid specimens 

 of this splendid tree sometimes lined the roadside, 

 and lent us their grateful shade as we rode along. 



1 occasionally saw one that had no limbs for 15 or 

 20 feet from the ground, and then spread out its 

 branches over a diameter of 50 or 60 feet. Chmb- 

 ing plants, shrubbery and grape vines flourish ex- 

 ceedingly in this soil, and the grape especially so. 

 I found it in the woods, on the roadside, and in 

 the grounds of nearly every house I have visited. 

 The people train the Isabella and Catawba over 

 extensive trellises, under which they have drive 

 waj s to the carriage-house, and, in one or two 

 cases, sufficiently spacious to pass under with an 

 ox load of hay, on the way to the barn ! The gen- 

 eral cultivation of the grape about the dwellings, 

 together with a pleasant variety of shrubs and 

 flowers, gives the country a most thrifty and in- 



' viting appearance to the traveller as he passes 

 along. Even before he meets and converses with 

 the people, he is led to believe them cultivated 

 and intelligent, and a more intimate acquaintance 

 does not dispel his early impressions, — at least, 

 not in my case. The Concord Grape, which is 

 considered the best out-door grape we have, is not 

 yet generally introduced into this section. I hope 

 it may find its way among them the coming au- 

 tumn, for I am confident it will be a great acqui- 

 sition to their present varieties. I have already 

 sent some among them, and shall continue to do 

 so, hereafter. 



The soil is peculiar, I have said. Upon rubbing 

 it between the fingers it has none of that sharp 

 grit that our sandy soils possess, although it has 

 the appearance of our sandy soils to the eye, ex- 

 cept in color. It feels soft and loamy, or like soap. 

 Even on the rocky fields, it retains this character- 

 istic ; consequently, the finest seeds come in it 

 without difficulty, and I was told that frost rarely 

 disturbs it so as to throw walls or fences from their 

 level. The appearance of the crops, all along my 

 way, where skilful cultivation was observed, gave 

 ample testimony of the excellence of the soil. 



I have passed over, more or less, three of the 

 five counties of the State, Providence, Kent and 

 AVashington. These lie on the western side of 

 the Bay, while Bristol and Newport are on the 

 eastern side. All along the shores of the Narra- 

 ganset, and fo4' several miles into the interior, the 

 farmers use large quantities of fish as a dressing 

 for their lands. One of my morning rambles was 

 to the shore where the fishermen were engaged in 

 drawing the seine. This is taken into a large 

 boat and carried a mile or two from the shore and 

 then spread from one boat to another, sweeping 

 over a large extent of the bay, and then gradually 

 brought ashore by the boatmen. In "the haul" 

 which I saw, there was not a large amount of 

 small fish, but the novelty of the matter was great- 

 ly increased for me by the presence of two sliarls, 

 each between 3 to 4 feet long, and two dog-Jish, 

 of about the same size. When the sharks showed 

 their tails and peculiarly ugly eyes, and announced 

 their objection to landing by some energetic gyra- 

 tions and snapping of their triple-armed jaws, 

 there was a lively "skedaddling" amor g the fisher- 

 men and the bare-footed boys ! A few shad were 

 included in the draught, some tautog, one lobster, 

 scallops, crabs, and the remainder mostly Men- 

 haden. The latter are the fish principally relied 

 upon as a manure. They are measured in a half- 

 barrel, as thrown from the net and at once loaded 

 into carts or wagons or left in heaps upon the 

 beach, to be taken by the parties who have en- 

 gaged them. If the planting season is not over, 

 they are carted at once to the field, and one fish, 

 Aveighing from one to two pounds, is di-opt into 



